Concerned about a business name, NYRA and the state abruptly pull a vendor's permit.

THE STAKES:

Where's the due process here?

We're not fans of the name that Brandon Snooks and Andrea Loguidice chose for their lunch truck: Wandering Dago. But it's one thing to have an opinion about it; it's quite another to use the power of government to suddenly pull the rug out from under a business that had played by all of government's rules.

This is not the first time we've seen how mutable the rules can be in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration. Whether it's a lunch truck with what the governor's people find a distasteful name, or a peaceful Occupy Albany demonstration that doesn't meet with the governor's approval and suddenly finds itself violating an invented curfew, it seems that when a top official puts his or her mind to it, there isn't a whim that can't trump things like due process and free speech.

Mr. Snooks and Ms. Loguidice seemed to be doing everything by the book when they sought to set up shop at Saratoga Race Course this year. They went through months of negotiation and gained approval from the New York Racing Association and its food contractor, Centerplate. The name of the business was known to all involved.

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Then, on July 19, the first day of the meet, Bennett Liebman, the governor's deputy secretary for gaming and racing, shot off an email to NYRA President Christopher Kay, raising concerns about the name of Wandering Dago. No, Mr. Liebman's note didn't order NYRA to bar the truck. It even suggested that perhaps the name could be changed. But anyone even passingly familiar with either business or bureaucracy would know that's no easy thing, whether you're Wal-Mart or a lunch truck. There are tax filings, contracts, bank accounts, public documents. Websites, social media addresses. A paint job on the truck. Signs. At least.

And Mr. Kay didn't have to squint to read between lines like, "I see this as a problem waiting to blow up." Nor could he be faulted if he concluded that Mr. Cuomo was behind the message.

Indeed, NYRA might have found itself hearing complaints from Italian-Americans upset by what many view as an ethnic slur. But the time to have a discussion about that was in the months that preceded the approval. Not on opening day, and not with an ultimatum to change the business' name in less than 24 hours to save the state and NYRA any potential discomfort.

It didn't take Mr. Kay's vast experience in the business world to know that a note like that from the executive chamber meant, "Do something now." Hours later, Mr. Snooks and Ms. Loguidice were out of business as far as Saratoga Race Course went.

And the response from Mr. Cuomo's office? Can't talk about a matter in litigation. Even to say whether the governor had anything to do with this ham-handed exercise of power.

Now Mr. Snooks and Ms. Loguidice are trying to salvage what's left of the season by suing the state to let them sell food at Empire State Plaza for a few weeks. If Mr. Cuomo wants to be business friendly, as he often says, he'd make that happen and save everybody the legal bills. And then he'd wander over and see if the menu features humble pie.